Month: July 2007

While you’re digging in your closet to pull out your dusty packing crates, why not tune in to hear Jolly Roger from the Alternative Energy Zone‘s podcast on Burncast, and hear his always articulate, no punches pulled opinions about the Green Man, and his long-timer’s advice for first timers–worth a listen! Click here for the link.

Another shameless idea snag from the Burn Clean Project. Want to go biodiesel this year? Get with Kohler Rental:

Don Gray at Kohler Power Supply is your man with the plan. He has boldly and brilliantly gone outside the conventions of generator providers across the country and made generators available for B100 use. In 2006, Kohler provided the generators for the Man, the Greeter’s Sation, and the Staff Commissary, as well as many theme camps such as Entheon Village and Hookah Dome. In 2007, BM has contracted Kohler almost all their generators and will be running B99 in them…yay, yay, yay!!!

Kohler offers 50 kW, 100kW, and 180 kW generators for B100 usage. They also make available the massive 300 kW for use with B10 or less.

OK, sometime while I was sleeping the kids over at theBurn Clean Projectsneaked into the workshop and cranked out an amazing web page, crammed with ways to Green Your Burn. Their latest addition? A BIODIESEL AIRPORT SHUTTLE BUS. How. great. is. that? Catch a ride from the Reno Airport or Amtrak station straight to the playa cruising on clean, green biodiesel. But wait, it gets better: first they take you to Wild Oats to buy nice, tasty, healthy ( and we’ll admit, hella expensive ) food for your week in the desert.

But wait, there’s more. Don’t want to ride with them? No problem–their site outlines just about every way to get to the playa that’s just a little bit greener; they’ve even figured out how long it will take to walk, for crying out loud.

Very cool site, very nice folks, shameless snag of a lot of their content after the jump. (more…)

Once again I hit the road to find out just what the heck is happening in Regional Land. This time, my visit took me to Apogaea, the Colorado Regional Burn.

Located about an hour outside of Colorado Springs on private land, Apogaea is a little treasure tucked up in the mountains. The drive from Denver took about 3.5 hours and was one of the most majestic and beautiful drives I’ve taken in years. Snow capped mountains, green fields, winding streams, big jagged rocks, it’s been years since I have traveled to such mountain country. I had forgotten the massive scale of things in this part of the country and found myself in awe for most of the drive.

Once again, my adventures in Regional land bring me back to you with a little update about Flipside in Austin, TX. Believe it or not, Flipside is my very first overnight Regional event that I have ever attended. This year. For real.

Located just outside of Austin, TX on private land, Flipside is one of the largest and oldest of Regional Events. I’d known about it for years and have always wanted to go, but my former duties as Ticket Manger for Burning Man didn’t allow for travel at that time of year. I arrived in Austin and met up with some fellow BMHQ staffers; DA our Playa Restoration Manager and Carmen from Burners without Borders.

So you know that really smart, clever thing that you do in your camp, you know, the one your neighbors see and go “damn, that’s a really clever way to XYZ! Here, have a blinky”? Yea, that thing. The one that makes you camp cleaner. Uses less energy. Generates fewer toxics. That’s the one.

Share the love already–head on down to center camp and find BMIR Burning Man Information Radio. You’d be amazed at how open they are to people dropping by to share what they know, maybe in a recorded Public Service Announcement. Talk to the people. Share what you know. Green up BRC. Who knows, maybe you’ve got an inner DJ, yearning to be free. Consider yourself having been given an invitation.

Beware of the Hungry Wind : Bring tethers, anchors, containers, and covers, to keep light stuff from blowing away. Tiny items that get wind born eventually stop tumbling, and when they do dust piles up against them, eventually forming mounds, then snakes, then berms, then hills, then mountain ranges, then…you get the idea. Even TINY stuff that blows away can have a large impact. And the wind gets greedy even when it’s not blowing–so when leaving Black Rock City, secure your load, and check it twice. Don’t be the one leaving “white people prayer flags” aka garbage twitering in the breeze along the highways home – Lorax